Purple has been known for over 2,000 years as the color of royalty. Have you ever wondered why this is? In a time long ago where all dyes came from Nature, they were very difficult and costly to make, and purple dye was at the top of the list of costly dyes. The ancient Phoenicians made purple dye in two ways: One was from the blooms of the Indigo plant, which, when boiled, produced a very bluish purple color. The other was from certain sea snails whose bodies produce a substance that is a rich reddish purple color, and when boiled, the dye is released. Both of these processes were extremely time consuming and painstaking, which meant that the resulting dye was quite hard to come by and quite expensive. This, in turn, meant that only the very wealthy could afford clothing dyed purple. Royalty saw purple clothing as a symbol of their socioeconomic status, and soon "the little people" began to associate purple dresses, purple capes, purple whatever with being "high society".

In the Victorian era, mourning the death of a relative developed its own set of ceremonies and requirements. If a husband died, his widow was expected to wear only black clothing for a full year. The second year, she could wear somber mauve dresses. After that, she was allowed to wear (you guessed it) purple dresses! In polite society, this observation of mourning, each stage marked by a different color, became de rigeur and of course, after ladies were past the first two stages, wearing rich, glorious cheap purple dresses must have been heavenly! This practice also meant that women of almost all socioeconomic statuses had at least one black dress, one mauve dress, and one cheap purple dress in their wardrobes. Purple became associated with rejoining society in social events, and perhaps taking a suitor. Since there's no sense in wasting a new dress, many times the coveted one became quite popular with matrons of any age. In this age of dyes being made from inexpensive chemicals, they are no longer reserved for the wealthy and the widowed. Today they are once again considered elegant, fun, and outgoing. No woman is too old and no girl is ever too young to wear a beautiful one. Celebrate life with a cheap purple dress! You can buy them from our online store.